Iris
by JordyGirl92
Summary: When the worst thing that has ever happened in Klaus' thousand years of life occurs, he turns to one single person, knowing that the rest of the world wouldn't understand. When her life starts falling down around her, Caroline finds that there's only one person she wants to turn to as well.
1. Prologue

**Iris**

_**Author's Note: This is the prologue. Keep in mind this is where I want this story to end up. The majority of this story will be the back story to getting here. Enjoy!**_

Looking back, I realize my first conscious thought that night was_ how am I so cold?_ It's an odd thing to remember certainly. But I guess we all seem to have strange thoughts that stand out when we remember moments that changed our lives so suddenly and so completely. Even though the events that brought us together that night were horrific, I smile because they brought me to him.

I hear a loud barking laugh and am pulled out my thoughts to see my fiancé laughing at something the mayor's wife had just said to the group he was standing in.

I always get butterflies in my stomach watching his face light up like that.

"It's because of you, you know." I hear a voice say. I turn and see Marcel beside me. I was standing at the bar waiting for a glass of water, having consumed plenty of alcohol for the evening. He held up and tilted his empty glass to signal to both the bartender and me that he was in need of a refill.

"What's because of me?" I ask.

"That he can laugh."

"Seriously? Don't be ridiculous, Marcel. Klaus laughed long before he knew me."

"Oh, sure, he laughed. He laughed in an '_I'm really going to enjoy watching your decapitated body writhe on the dirty ground'_ kind of way. Or an 'I_ am the Original hybrid! You shall never beat me!_' kind of way. But, not a laugh that just said he was genuinely happy."

"Oh, come on." I laugh as the bartender sits both my water and Marcel's fresh drink in front of us. "Be serious. He was alive for a thousand years before he met me. I'm sure somewhere in there was a genuine laugh."

"I guess you're right. What I'm really trying to say is that he was never so open about his happiness before. It seemed that if he was happy he had to very quickly do something drastic so that no one would think for a second that he was vulnerable."

"Well, that I can believe." I reply.

"I'm happy you're here, is all." Marcel says before he takes his drink and leaves to rejoin the group of people he had been talking with before.

Something about what he said sticks with me. I turn to look back to Klaus to see he was already looking at me. He smiles when I make eye contact with him and gives an uncharacteristically cute wink, _Maybe Marcel isn't wrong, no one back home would believe me if I told them the great and powerful Hybrid _winks.

I just wink back at him as I take my water and continue to walk around the art gallery where we are attending a charity function and try to look as engrossed as possible in the paintings in an effort not to be corned into yet another unbelievably boring conversation about just how well the Saints—New Orleans' football team—is doing this year and how we might even make the Super Bowl! I mean, I was head cheerleader in high school and therefore could talk about football with the best of them, but really. There are only so many times you can have the same conversation with people before you're ready to shoot someone.

I believe this particular function is supposed to help support the homeless and underprivileged of New Orleans. Or maybe it's another one of the many charities the mayor seems to support. Either way, Klaus would need to stay at the party for a few more hours to schmooze and not only am I ready to skip out on more of what I'm sure would be absolutely _riveting_ conversations, but I'm also ready to take these heels off.

As I finish my last round, I find two paintings that speak to me. They're beautiful landscapes. Dark colors, but balanced somehow. I decide they would work beautifully in our new living room and hallway. As I'm looking, the owner of the gallery finds his way over to me.

"Do you like the paintings?" He asks.

"Yes. I love them, actually. I'd like to speak with someone about purchasing them."

"Yeah, absolutely! No problem. I'll just get Manuel at the desk over here to ring you up. By the way, did you see the Saint's game last Sunday..."

After making out the check to the charity of the night—I was wrong, it was a cancer research—I make my way over to my husband. "You ready to go?" he asks. I smile, "I know you can't leave yet, I'll just see you at home. I love you."

"I love you more," he whispers where only I could hear before turning his attention back to the mayor's wife.

Half an hour later I am in the bedroom of our home on the edge of the Garden District. I love this house. I have always loved plantation style homes and so I noticed when this house went up for sale. When Klaus had suggested we move into our own separate home after being _interrupted_ a few too many times by his siblings, I jumped at the opportunityto live here.

I take off my party dress and high heels to trade them in for boy shorts and one of Klaus' Henley tees. As I make my way to the bathroom, I pass in front of the open bedroom window. Memory slams into me.


	2. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: Hi everyone! This is my first Klaroline fanfic! I'm nervous putting this out there, but I'm hoping it will be well received. I don't have a beta so all mistakes are mine. This story takes place approximately six months after 5x11 in TVD and only includes events up to 5x11. While this story will partially take place in New Orleans, I haven't really watched TO and; therefore, will be completely non-cannon with the show. Let's just pretend that the show never happened, shall we?**_

I was lying on the beach sipping Mai Tai's and enjoying the sun. The moment was perfect. I shivered. It must be the cold drink in my hand. I shivered again, just a little harder and I realized I was cold. No, not cold...freezing. _How am I so cold?_ When I opened my eyes it took me a few minutes to understand why it was dark and I was in my room. Then I noticed the open window.

_Well, at least that explains why I'm so cold._ I sighed. I _really _did not want to get out of a slightly warm bed— walking across what was sure to be an ice cold floor—to shut the window. _Maybe if I just ignore it I can go back to sleep. _Thirty seconds and a few hard shivers later, I realized how futile that mission was. _Okay, just throw the covers back, whoosh to the window and whoosh back to bed._

With a groan I started to do just that. I was almost out of the bed when I heard "You really should be more careful of your surroundings, love."

Embarrassingly, I yelped as my legs tangled in the comforter and I went tumbling to the floor. _Yeah, Forbes, you seem like a real badass now_ flashed through my thoughts as I quickly untangled myself, stood up and turned around to face whoever was in my bedroom with my most convincing _you picked the _wrong_ girl to terrorize _face on. Or, at least that was the message I hoped it conveyed.

But, my fright at a stranger being in my room quickly turned to annoyance as I realized who I was looking at sitting in my bedside chair. He must have moved it, as the chair's current position looked over the bed instead of facing parallel to it.

"Seriously?" I yelled, thankful that my mom was working the overnight shift on patrol. I _so_ did not need her to hear this. "_What _are you doing here? You _promised_ to leave and never come back! I mean...seriously, you only made that promise like _six months ago _and you're already—"

He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees while casting his face into the moonlight filtering in and I cut my sentence off as I got my first good look at Klaus Mikaelson's face in six months. He looked...haggard. That was the best word I could think of to describe him.

His face seemed sunken in somehow and beyond pale. I didn't even know vampire's faces _could_ look like that. My guess would be he hadn't eaten in days.

"You look like shit." I said

"Glad to see some things never change," he said with the ghost of smile touching his lips.

I knew I was staring at his face. I recognized that he was staring at me, staring at him, but I couldn't help it. I had never seen him like this before. The only time that had come even close to this was when Silas had made him hallucinate the white oak stake splinters in his back. And, I thought _that _was bad. That was nothing compared to this. This...this spoke of torture I hadn't even come close to experiencing.

"What happened to you?" I whispered.

He gave a humorless laugh, more like a quick puff of air, and turned to look at the wall next to him. He didn't say anything for the longest time. Just when I finally started to think he wasn't going to say anything at all, I heard, "She's dead." It was spoken so quietly it took a few seconds for me to grasp what had been said.

"Who? Who's dead?" I asked, suddenly fearful for the lives of my friends any myself. If it was his Rebekah that meant thousands of vampires would start dying at any minute. What if we weren't from Klaus' line after all? What if—

"My daughter."

Oh.

Oh, God.

"How?" I said. I could see the physical toll the pain of her death had taken out on him even though he still hadn't looked at me since my first question, and I couldn't even begin to imagine the emotional. My heart squeezed at the thought. _If only all those people who had laughed at me when I made mention of Klaus being unable to feel anything but rage and familial obligation could see this _was my first thought, quickly followed by _God help the people who were responsible for this. _

"I killed her." He said, turning his face to look up at me sharply.

I stared at him.

"Seriously?" I yelled once again. I could tell by his face that this was the exact reaction he was expecting, but I wasn't done yet.

"No," I said. "No, you do not get to come in here and say something like that! I know you well enough to know that shock value was what you were going for there. You came in here and you wanted me to tell you what an awful person I think you are. You wanted me to scream about how I could have ever kissed or had amazing forest goodbye sex with a man who would kill his own daughter."

If it wasn't such a serious subject I'd have laughed. Klaus had two looks: brimming with anger and the relaxed badass whom nothing could bother. He looked shocked now to say the least.

"You want to hear something from me?" I continued, my voice rising louder and louder. "Fine. Well, hear this: I know you so much better than you think! God, Klaus, I've seen how you love your family! I was there in Elena's house with you right after Kol died. You wouldn't seriously hurt any of them unless they were an absolute direct threat against you, and even then you'd probably just put them in a coffin for a hundred years or something, which is messed up. I'm not saying you and your family aren't messed up, but you'd never permanently hurt any of them! And they aren't even full blooded siblings! Don't you think I realize how much you would _treasure_ a child of yours? Don't you think I would know that if your daughter died by your own hand there had to be extenuating circumstances that put it in her best interest? You're a bastard for sure and a villain if ever there was one, but I know you'd never hurt your daughter just for the sake of it."

I was slightly out of breath by the time I finished. Once again, we seemed to be in a stare-off, and I was determined to win.

Finally, he looked away. He got up and walked to the still open window. I shivered. I had forgotten about my reasoning for getting up in the first place.

"You're right. You're right about most of it. I didn't come here to hear you incriminate me. But the rest of it...that much is true." He said.

"Oh...well, why are you here then?" I asked, taken aback.

"Hah," he laughed the same little puff as before. "Why am I here? That's a good question. I'm not even sure of the answer." He paused. Then, " I guess I just didn't want to see anyone else in the entire world but you. No one, not even my family understands me the way you do. Most of the time it seems as if everything in my life, and I do mean _everything_, is made to be broken. I just want someone to know who I am. I wanted to be with someone who understood that I did the best that I could do with the situation I was given, not someone would say they understood and yet I could still see the lingering doubts in their eyes."

We were silent for a minute while I took that in. "What happened," I finally ask, going to sit back on the bed.

He turned away from the window to look at me for a second before dropping his eyes to the floor and saying, "It was the day of the blue moon. Apparently, it's impossible not to turn on one, but because Hailey was pregnant, her body started rejecting the change early on in the day. The internal struggle triggered an early labor. She was only a couple weeks early, nothing too frightening for the baby. The problem was, Hailey's body wouldn't stop fighting her pregnancy even while giving birth. The stress was too much and she died. As a result, my child took a life within moments of taking her first breath. I named her Hope. That night, started to show signs of the change. Her heart was too small, too new. The only reason she was lasted through any of the transition at all was because she had some of my regenerative powers, just not enough it seems. She wouldn't have made it through and she was in _pain._ She just kept screaming, but there was nothing I could do. I knew for certain that there was no way she would make it through the night so I snapped her neck. I just didn't want her to be in pain anymore."

The words were broken by pauses where it seemed he needed to regain some control. It was obvious that he was trying to hold himself together. He was still looking at the floor when I said, "Come here."

His head jerked up in shock to stare at me again. "You just seem like you could use some comfort is all." I said. He still was staring at me, though I could see the appeal in my offer to him. I patted the area beside me on the bed as though to make myself clear, still he hesitated. "This isn't sex, Klaus. It's just comfort. I just want to hold you for a little while. Sometimes it feels...well, it feels like we're living in a movie written for someone else's enjoyment. You just need things like this to know you're still alive." And with that, the decision was made.

He took off his belt and shoes before lying down beside me as I stretched out next to him with my cheek on his shoulder. I said "What you did, Klaus...it wasn't wrong. She was suffering for the sake of suffering and it wasn't going to do her any good. You aren't a monster for doing it." I felt like that was the true underlying reason for him coming. He needed to hear from someone that he wasn't evil.

For a long time, the only sound was our breathing. I started drifting, and just before I fell into dreamland I felt him twist his head to kiss my forehead and heard him say "You are the closest thing to Heaven I will ever know. Thank you."

_**I don't have a beta yet so all grammar/spelling mistakes are mine! RL is kind of a bit crazy for me at the moment so I don't know that I'll have any type of regular updating schedule for this, in fact, I'm still finishing a plot line for this in my head. Leave me a review and let me know what you think?**_

_**JordyGirl92**_


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